I told you about the guy who was prancing around south Texas with guns and scared crap outta the border patrol?  The border patrol thought he as a bad guy, fired on him 4 times and missed all four times.   Our resident anonymous Republican Mr. Moderate, who is neither moderate nor near as anonymous as he thinks he is (more on that later), argued in the comments that this dude was perfectly within his rights and that border agents were wrong to shoot at him.

This guy and his well organized militia are camping out near the border in hopes of shooting some Mexicans.

Turns out that the guy is a convicted felon.  His name is John Frederick Forester and he’s had a few dust-ups with the law, having misdemeanor convictions for theft and trespassing and a felony conviction for burglary.

I also found this one where he plead guilty and paid a $350 fine for possession of a switchblade and brass knuckles.

Forester’s most recent scramble from justice are convictions in both Cameron and Fort Bend Counties for theft of property in 2009.

So, you’re wondering, how does Mr. Forester get to be a gun-toting militia member?

State law states a felon can’t use guns after a conviction and before the fifth anniversary of his or her release from prison. Federal law, though, prohibits felons from ever possessing firearms.

Hell, in Texas they give you a gun the day you get out of prison.  So Forester was in violation of federal statutes but not state statutes.  And if you’re trying to do the job of the border patrol, you just might want to think about federal statutes.

But get this:

The commander said the group is contemplating suing the federal government and the Cameron County Sheriff’s Department over the shots-fired incident.

Oh cool.  Can I be on that jury?  I wanna be on that jury.

Up the upside, the justice system in Cameron County already has Forester’s identifying information on file so there’s that time saver in the courts.

Goodness gracious!  You’ve got yourself a convicted felon who plead guilty to possessing illegal weapons and has some serious theft and trespassing problems.  The scary thing is that he’s probably the chaplain of his militia group!

And in other Militia News —

In Arizona militia members from Colorado came on ATV’s while wearing cammo and armed to the teeth —

Authorities say, apparently, a group of heavily-armed border militia members mistook conservationists researching bats for illegal immigrants or smugglers.

It happened Aug. 23 in the Gardner Canyon area near Sonoita where the small group of conservationists was out in the middle of the night conducting a wildlife population survey, in this case, counting bats.

Thankfully, no bats were harmed in this stunning dust-kicking display of LOW T.

Sheriff Estrada says Santa Cruz County does not welcome border militia groups.

“These people that are completely out of their environment. They really don’t know the area. They don’t know the terrain. They have little knowledge of the dynamics of the border. So it can be a real problem,” Estrada says. “We really don’t want them here.”

Me, too, Sheriff.  Me, too.